A’s Getting Ready To Take On The Rays
By Kevin Mendez
After a 4-2 road trip the Oakland Athletics are at home tonight to take on the Tampa Bay Rays. The A’s are unbelievably hot right now and are not looking to cool down anytime soon. Currently, the Athletics hold sole possession of the first wild card spot, 1/2 a game ahead of the Los Angeles Angels but the Tampa Bay Rays are not far behind. The Rays find themselves 2 games back from the second wild card spot. They will looking to make a splash in Oakland and cool off the scorching Athletics.
On the hill for the first game of the series for the Oakland A’s will be rookie pitcher A.J. Griffin. Griffin continues to pitch well and will try and continue his success tonight at the Coliseum. He is coming off of three consecutive wins, this coming after three consecutive no decisions. During his consecutive wins, Griffin owns a 2.50 ERA with 18 strikeouts during this stretch. He will need to give everything he has tonight since he will be facing one of the best pitchers in baseball, David Price.
David Price will be starting tonight for the Tampa Bay Rays. Price has also been pitching very well as of late. In his last three starts, Price is 3-0 with a 1.27 ERA and 25 strikeouts. These stats are just a small portion of what he has been doing all year. On the season, David Price has an astounding 14-4 record, a 2.57 ERA, and ranks 6th among A.L starting pitchers with 130 K’s. To say the A’s will have their work cut out for them tonight would be an understatement.
DownSide: The Athletics are coming off a loss where they scored only one run and struck out 14 times. Meanwhile, David Price has only allowed one earned run in his last two starts and has struck out 17 batters.
UpSide: Oakland is 18-4 in the Month of July and are 17-10 on the season against teams in the American League East. They will try and build on both of those records over the next three games.
Probable Pitchers
Game 2: James Shields (8-7, 4.52 ERA) vs Tommy Milone (9-7, 3.51 ERA)
Game 3: Alex Cobb (4-8, 4.93 ERA) vs Jarrod Parker (7-4, 3.38 ERA)